P.M. Bhargava

Kolkata: Reservation in higher education has to be coupled with efforts at empowering the excluded, so that reservation would cease to be necessary, Vice-Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission P.M. Bhargava said here on Tuesday.

Dr. Bhargava was speaking at a policy dialogue workshop on ``Widening Access and Social Inclusion in Higher Education: U.K. and India,'' organised by the British Council, as part of a five-year programme of international cooperation, known as the U.K.-India Education Research Initiative.

`Equip excluded group'

Dr. Bhargava said that to equip the excluded group to compete on a par with the rest of society, they must be given training in communication and social intercourse and other life skills.

Speaking in favour of a common school system to end commercialisation of school education, he said: ``no government system will deliver and access will not be ensured to all as long as the elites went to schools that charged high fees."

Dr. Bhargava said that while good quality school education should be made available to all, there should be a national level selection test for enrolment in higher education. Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Sukhadeo Thorat said that in Indian society, which was inherently exclusionary in nature, the social exclusion faced by groups would have to be addressed through the dual policy of economic empowerment through financial incentives, supplemented by provisions of affirmative action.

Professor Thorat said that in the case of international educational institutions coming to India, they must be sensitive to policies of social exclusion.

Foreign educational providers must follow the norms of the Government and function on an altruistic motive rather than for making money.

The UGC would soon increase the number of fellowships for research students, especially in Central universities, and also provide support to colleges for economically deprived groups, he said.

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